Talk of Leland-Belville merger resurfaces

With their proximity and confusing boundaries, sometimes it’s hard to tell whether you’re in Leland or the smaller Belville.

By Ana Ribeiro and Ken Little Ana.Ribeiro@StarNewsOnline.com

With their proximity and confusing boundaries, sometimes it’s hard to tell whether you’re in Leland or the smaller Belville.Talks on merging the towns have fallen through and resurfaced over the years, at times including neighboring Navassa. The subject has come up again this election season. “It’s the number one question that’s asked of me,” said Frank Bullara, a Leland mayoral candidate. He, fellow candidate Robert Boynton and incumbent Mayor Walter Futch have indicated they’d go for consolidation if all three towns agree.So have the candidates for Leland Town Council, except Wendell Graham, a Leland resident who is a Navassa police detective and has family in Belville.“It’s taking away from their identity,” Graham said. “I don’t think that people who run those areas will be for it.”Navassa Mayor Eulis Willis, who is seeking re-election, said officials with the three towns met on the matter for several months in 2000 and agreed they were getting nowhere with it.“We’re quite aware since then the other communities have changed significantly,” Willis said. Like candidates in Leland and Belville, Willis is willing to revisit the merger idea if that’s what residents want.On one side of the merger question is the possibility of combining resources and improving services for residents. On the other is the desire to build an identity as an individual town. Belville, for one, has found pockets of Waterford – which is in both Leland and Belville – within its jurisdiction to open a new Town Hall and liquor store, and is looking forward to a developer’s project to revamp its dilapidated downtown. “It’s up to the citizens, whatever happens,” said Belville Mayor Chuck Thurlow, who also is seeking re-election. “Personally, I’m not a proponent of it. We’re a very healthy and vibrant town with a specific vision. We want to grow and develop and to make it a different entity, so it doesn’t make sense to me at this time.”Although he doesn’t advocate a total merger of town governments, Commissioner Jack Batson – Thurlow’s adversary in the mayoral race – said Belville and Leland could combine their planning and parks and recreation departments to save money and collaborate on projects.“The Leland plan for widening Village Road should be coordinated with Belville’s downtown plan,” Batson said. “The towns should work together on connectors for the four lanes. ... Is it not reasonable that plans for bike paths be coordinated? Are paths and walkways to stop at city limits?” The towns are intertwined to the point that Belville’s sections are all surrounded by Leland, and some sections of Belville are three miles apart, Batson said. “The house or building next door may be in Leland,” he said, and there could be zoning conflicts. “How can Belville zone four acres for single-family homes when surrounded by 50 acres of property zoned for heavy manufacturing?” Batson said.Belville commissioner candidate Mike Allen said he’d only consider a merger if there were a referendum. Commissioner Buddie Ennis agrees with Thurlow, while Donna Schardien, another commissioner candidate, says she’s all in favor of exploring options with Leland to combine services.Schardien, a resident of the Olde Towne subdivision, said that she believes her community feels the same way, that “we should at least be working with Leland, and this is not happening.” Members of her community have publicly complained about not getting enough services from Belville which, unlike Leland and Navassa, does not have its own police force.